From that day on, Su Lin actually visited often.
Although he did not come by every day, it was still a great progress. Every time he came, Xu Qichen tried to talk to him as much as possible. However, the other party was a large block of ice, so it was impossible to melt it all at once.
It couldn’t be helped. When wooing someone, one could not be overly concerned about one’s own image. Anyway, he was just doing a task, so he could pretend that he was just acting.
“Dr. Su, when will my leg be good again?”
“Dr. Su, do you like sweets?”
“Dr. Su, the movie I watched recently was so good, and the male actor looked a little bit like you. So handsome!”
“Dr. Su, you…”
Dr. Su, who had not expressed any opinions until then, finally spoke up that day, “You should have hurt your tongue instead of your leg.”
So mean.
In the blink of an eye, several weeks went by.
It was another day when Su Lin didn’t make rounds. Xu Qichen waited alone in the ward for a long time. When the sun was almost setting, he felt unable to wait any more, because a nurse had told him that he could remove the plaster tomorrow. Lu Xuan had been living on campus, but there was no elevator in the dormitory, which made going upstairs and downstairs inconvenient with a plaster, so he stayed in the hospital for a few more weeks until the plaster was removed.
Given Su Lin’s personality, it was extremely likely that he would not visit on the day he was discharged, so he could not simply sit still and wait.
Xu Qichen left the ward on crutches, slowly, without knowing where Su Lin would be now. Xu Qichen decided to go to the convenience store to buy a bottle of soda and try his luck.
As soon as he got to the store, he saw Su Lin standing with another female doctor in a white coat. This scene was very strange, because he had never seen Su Lin in close contact with other colleagues in all the time since he came to the world. He was always alone.
Xu Qichen’s first reaction was, once again, to find a tree to hide behind. However, barely a second later, he regretted it. because this behavior did not conform to Lu Xuan’s design. Still, he hid to spy on them.
“Dr. Su, we’re all adults here, so let’s not beat around the bush.”
He was no simple adult, he had lived for several hundred years. Xu Qichen leant against the tree while holding the crutches.
“I have liked you for a long time, and I know you’re single right now.” The female doctor looked at Su Lin straight in the eye, “Can we give it a try?”
“Give it a try?”
Xu Qichen was a little surprised by Su Lin’s response. According to common sense, shouldn’t the flower of the high mountains directly respond with, “I’m sorry, I don’t like you,” or something similar?
What’s going on now? Was he really going to give it a try?
This is not following the plot ah.
The female doctor took this question as encouragement. She took a step closer, saying, “En, I think we should…”
However, Su Lin immediately took a step back, maintaining a safe distance between them.
She quickly realised that she had overstepped and continued awkwardly, “Ah, I mean, maybe we should start as friends, if you’d prefer…”
That step that Su Lin took back made Xu Qichen unable to see his expression, so he had to move out from behind the tree trunk. Unexpectedly, his arms were not firmly clamped over the crutches, and they crashed to the ground.
Aiya, how embarrassing!
The two doctors looked over, and Xu Qichen subconsciously turned his back and stuck to the tree, pretending that nothing had happened.
He heard them say something, but they were too quiet now for him to hear clearly.
Are they gone? They must be gone, right?
Xu Qichen carefully stuck to the tree and watched that female doctor leave. As she left, she especially looked back at him. There was an unspeakable unkindness in his eyes.
I didn’t interrupt your confession on purpose, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
Even though it’s not the first time I’ve done something like this…
Su Lin should have left too, right?
Xu Qichen stretched out his plastered leg and tried to squat down to see if he could pick up the crutch, but it was very difficult. He was very tired just after squatting down.
Forget it. He should check if Su Lin was still there.
Xu Qichen stood back up and stuck his head around the tree to look. He was not outside the convenience store anymore.
He’s gone.
Then he turned back around and Su Lin’s face appeared right in front of him, making Xu Qichen jump.
“D-Dr. Su.” Xu Qichen smiles awkwardly, “What a coincidence.” He pointed at the fallen crutches, “Can you pick that up for me?”
Of course, Su Lin did not do as asked.
Xu Qichen put his hands together and asked in his softest voice, “Please?”
Begged like so, the flower of the high mountains finally moved, bending down to pick up his crutches. After handing it back to him, he immediately turned away and walked back towards the convenience store.
Xu Qichen followed him one hop at a time, and the two entered the store. Originally, he wanted to buy soda, but his gaze was caught by an ice popsicle he had liked as a child. Xu Qichen changed his mind on a whim and took a strawberry flavored one. As he checked out, he saw Su Lin, who had bought a pack of cigarettes, leave the store.
Xu Qichen started to get anxious, but the cashier continued slowly, “Do you have a membership?”
“No,” Xu Qichen answered quickly, and paid as quickly as he could. When he pushed open the door to leave, he saw that Su Lin had not left, and was instead sitting on the bench just outside. He heaved a sigh of relief and hopped over to him, sitting down beside him.
“The bench is so long. Must you sit right beside me?”
Xu Qichen laughed, “I don’t think we’re too close. Do you feel squeezed?”
Su Lin nodded.
Xu Qichen scooted over a few milimeters. “Done.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“P’w cba fjalcu atlr,” Ve Olc rjlv, jcv qea atf mlujgfaaf lc tlr wbeat.
“I’m not giving it to you to eat,” Xu Qichen took his hand and forced him to hold the popsicle. “I can’t eat the whole thing at once, and I’m afraid it will melt. Your hand is cold, so hold it for me.”
Su Lin: “…”
Xu Qichen took a bite of ice, and the strawberry pink ice melted in his mouth. His eyes stared at Su Lin, who was frowning and smoking. Finally, he couldn’t help laughing, “Just kidding, you can eat it.”
Su Lin gave him the popsicle back, “No need.”
“It’s delicious.” Xu Qichen whipped the cigarette from Su Lin’s mouth, then held his wrist and put the strawberry popsicle in his hand into his mouth. “Try it.”
Unexpectedly having ice stuffed into his mouth, Su Lin’s flinched and his eyebrows tightened.
Xu Qichen stared at his profile, trying to capture some small details on Su Lin’s expressionless face that could tell him about his emotions.
His complexion did not seem very good today, even his lips were pale.
As he stared, his mind began to wander.
Su Lin noticed his stare and turned around to look at him.
Xu Qichen immediately came back to himself and panicked.
He did not know why; obviously, this person was not like him at all. He did not like to laugh or talk, but the two people’s side profiles overlapped in his mind, and he could not help drawing comparisons between them.
In his moment of panic, Xu Qichen brought the cigarette to his mouth.
But he did not even know how to smoke. When he found that he had made a mistake, he accidentally took a breath because of surprise and panic. The strange and irritating smoke hit his throat very aggressively, and soon got into his lungs, which made him quickly remove the cigarette and bend over coughing.
Su Lin subconsciously reached out to pat his back, but his palm stopped at a distance of ten centimeters from his spine.
Xu Qichen did not even notice his actions as he was coughing his lungs out. After a while, he handed the cigarette back to Su Lin with a red face, “Why do you like smoking? Because it’s exciting?”
He was just complaining, but he did not expect Su Lin to really give an answer. Unexpectedly, the man suddenly spoke.
“It fills the void inside.”
Xu Qichen froze.
He suddenly remembered the last reunion he had with his classmates.
At that time, he had graduated from college and didn’t want to attend any reunion. What’s more, it was their highschool freshman Class 13 that had only been together for a year, so he did not even see why they wanted to have a reunion.
However, it happened that the class president of Class 13 was in the same university as him and had his contact. He had repeatedly urged him, saying that he was the only one who had not agreed, and they wanted to have everyone at the reunion. Although Xu Qichen might seem cold and distant, he was unable to refuse someone repeatedly.
Knowing that he would be there, Xu Qichen made sufficient psychological preparation before arriving at the destination. However, when he saw him, all the psychological defense lines automatically broke up in a moment, and he was hopeless.
In the private room, there were four tables. Xu Qichen did not go to the table where he was, but silently followed the class president who had tried so hard to invite him. As before, that person was always the focus of the crowd, the sun around which all planets revolve spontaneously and consciously. Xu Qichen tried to keep his head down and not look at him. But his heart still rose and fell with the rhythm of his voice from across the room.
After a torturous meal, he was about to go home when the class president stopped him and dragged him along to the karaoke with them. In fact, Xu Qichen knew that if he insisted, he could have refused, but he was bewitched at that time.
When he was out of sight, he could still lie to others and even to himself, that he did not miss him.
But once he saw him, he could not take a step away.
In the dim, flashing lights of the karaoke room, Xu Qichen sat on the edge of the couch, drinking beer quietly, while a girl beside him kept talking to him. In fact, Xu Qichen did not even remember her name, but he still kept up the conversation to distract himself.
The other end of the couch was far more rowdy. Everyone was cajoling, because that person was famously good at singing.
He could not help but look over at him, only to see him refuse, “I smoked too much recently, so my throat is way out of shape.”
“No problem, it’s just singing to your friends.”
“I haven’t heard that anyone who smokes until they really can’t sing. You’re just making excuses, aren’t you? No, I won’t allow you to go home without singing today.”
“Yeah! Sing! Sing!”
Being worn down like this, he finally agreed. The class’s vice president was very enthusiastic. “What are you singing? I’ll add it for you.”
He looked a the list of songs that had already been added and said, “No need to add it again, I’ll just sing the third one.”
Xu Qichen lowered his head and looked at his canvas shoe tip. The white part was a little dirty. He lowered his head and wiped it, but the dirt could not be wiped off.
“Xu Qichen, I’ve been the one talking the whole time. You haven’t said a word about yourself.” The enthusiastic girl bumped him on the shoulder, “What have you been doing recently?”
The introduction of the song had just ended. Xu Qichen said, “Just, being busy. I don’t know what I’ve been doing either.”
The girl didn’t know how to continue the conversation from there. Coincidentally, that person began to sing, so their conversation ended.
“I may never embrace you again
Maybe your weight will make me dream
Once upon a time, I didn’t even dare to get sick
Because I didn’t want to miss a moment with you
Will you ever recall that silly me?”
Why must he sing a song like this?
His chest was tight and he thought of a terribly overused metaphor.
People always compare the moment of palpitating to a deer running around in panic, but now he thought that if there was a deer in his heart, it must surely be a deer suffering from pain. It could not relieve its pain, and so it could only roll around in his heart, bumping its walls viciously.
Making Xu Qichen hurt, too.
He had not lied. His voice was no longer the clear youthful voice he had in high school. It became much lower, and felt both familiar and strange.
The lyrics of the song really fitted the occasion.
Back then, their class had been split into pairs for self-study, and Xu Qichen had been paired with him. After self-study every night, they even stayed an extra hour, just helping each other study.
One of them was good at liberal arts and the other was good at science, so they were very suitable study partners.
One night, Xu Qichen noticed that his complexion was bad and his voice was strange, but he didn’t say anything. The next day, when he saw the empty back seat and heard the comments of his classmates, he found out that he had a fever yesterday. He went home at night and fell unconscious because of it. He was sent to the emergency room overnight.
But Xu Qichen just thought, this man was really persistent. How many questions he could do in an hour? Why did he work so hard instead of taking a break?
“It was not you I loved,
But fighting with my own heart,
And the cigarettes I could never finish smoking…”
Unable to bear it anymore, Xu Qichen got up and left the room. He went straight to the bathroom, turned on the tap, bowed his head and washed his face, and did not lift his head for a long time.
He was alone in the bathroom for a long time, and was not ready to leave until his mood was slightly calmer.
Coincidentally, as soon as he came out, he saw him standing outside the private room with a girl of their class. Xu Qichen still remembered that back in highschool, the same girl had chased him for a while before giving up.
It would be too awkward to walk past them, but Xu Qichen could not force his feet to move.
“How are you? Still in a long-distance relationship?”
“… En.”
“The way you sang that song, I thought you two broke up.” The girl’s sharp heel knocked on the ground, “But really, even though you’re so handsome, you aren’t even a little tempted by anyone else? Do you really like her so much?”
He lowered his head and leant against the wall, “Yes…”
The deer that had just been tranquilized began to go crazy again.
Xu Qichen felt his hands grow cold.
He took a deep breath and walk out of the bathroom calmly.
Upon seeing him, the girl smiled sweetly, “Hi, Qichen~”
Xu Qichen gave her a polite but emotionless smile as he entered the room.
He heard the girl comment behind him, “And he hasn’t changed at all, as quiet as always.”
At the end of the reunion, everyone in the class took a taxi and left, leaving Xu Qichen and him alone.
They both lived nearby, so they did not need to take a taxi. This situation became awkward; it would be strange to go home together, but even stranger to go home separately.
Finally, the other party broke the deadlock, “It’s been a long time since we walked back home together.”
Xu Qichen replied, “En,” and went silent again.
“Why haven’t you got a girlfriend or something?” His tone was very casual.
Xu Qichen continued walking with his head down, “Haven’t met one I like.”
“Ah, yes, it’s not easy to date nowadays.” He took out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket, “Do you mind? I really need a smoke.” Seeing Xu Qichen shake his head, he lit a cigarette before continuing, “The one you like might not like you, and the ones who like you, you might not like. There are so many people in the world, but the probability of meeting the one for you is so low.”
“En…”
They walked quietly down the street, and stopped at a traffic light.
“Aren’t you going to ask me how I’ve been?”
Xu Qichen turned his head and saw him ask with a smile.
There was a long silence.
As the number on the red light got smaller, his confidence also shrank.
“Forget it, I was just kidding…” “Have you been well?”
They spoke at the same time, and went silent at the same time.
“The light’s green.” He began to walk again, “I don’t know either.” Smoke lingered around his face, making Xu Qichen unable to see his expression.
“Shouldn’t one always look forward to life? I feel that the things I have to look forward to are getting less and less. Every day I live in a blur. My heart is empty and I feel that there is nothing in it.”
Xu Qichen was not very used to his interpretation. Even as they reached the end of the crossing, he could not conjure a response.
After the crossing, one of them would turn right, and the other would turn left.
Xu Qichen looked at him again and finally asked, “Why do you smoke?”
He was stunned, took the cigarette away from his mouth, and dropped his hand.
“I just said so, didn’t I? My heart feels too empty.”
When his flashback ended, he finally noticed that the popsicle in his hand had melted a lot, and the light pink liquid overflowed from the half broken transparent plastic container and dripped on Xu Qichen’s hand, making it sticky.
He looked at Su Lin. “You remind me of someone.”
Su Lin’s eyelashes moved slightly, and he puffed out a white smoke.
“Especially when you smoke.”
Su Lin did not speak. Xu Qichen suddenly took away the ice lolly in his hand. “See? The one in your hand didn’t melt so quickly.” Then he took a big bite of ice.
Cool crushed ice, too sweet strawberry essence, and the lingering smell of tobacco in the mouth were stirred together by the warm spring sunset, and became a strangely harmonious match.
Xu Qichen looked down at the two pieces of strawberry ice in his hands and at the cigarette between Su Lin’s fingers.
He asked suddenly, “Do you like this taste?”
Su Lin asked uncomprehendingly, “What?”
“The taste of strawberry and cigarette.” Xu Qichen licked up some of the melted ice on his hand. “We should both be experiencing the same taste now, right?”
Only after saying it, did he realise that it sounded rather ambiguous.
Su Lin didn’t answer, but put out the cigarette, stood up and threw it into the trash can.
Xu Qichen did not follow him this time, but said to his back: “Dr. Su, I will be discharged the day after tomorrow. Please see me off.”
He did not receive a reply, but Xu Qichen did not mind. He simply finished his popsicle.
The next day, Xu Qichen got his plaster removed. He went to get an x-ray early in the morning before he was brought to the orthopaedics department.
“Where is Dr. Su?”
The nurse smiled, “You’re always asking about Dr. Su. He’s on medical leave today.”
Medical leave? Vampires can fall sick? Xu Qichen asked, “What happened, is he sick?”
“I don’t know, but he hasn’t been in good spirits for the past two days. Maybe he is too tired.” She went to prepare the equipment after saying that, “Dr. Wang will cut it for you later. You can sit here and wait.”
Xu Qichen nodded. After a while, Dr. Wang and the nurse came in together, and they were still talking about something.
“When did Xiao Fang from the lab quit?”
“I don’t know either. After the operation the other day, I went to the blood bank and didn’t see her there.”
“Is she getting married?”
“Dr. Wang, she doesn’t even have a boyfriend.”
Xiao Fang, lab, blood bank… These keywords suddenly attracted Xu Qichen’s attention.
He searched his brain for all the relevant plots, and remembered that in the original, Su Lin chose to work in the Third Hospital because there was a female vampire like him here, Fang Ya. She worked in the laboratory department, responsible for regular inspection and processing of blood bank specimens. This was Su Lin’s food source.
If she quit her job, that means Su Lin’s food supply was cut off.
“Your leg can’t bear your full weight immediately after we remove the plaster, you know, you need to continue using the crutches for a while.” Dr. Wang explained with great care, “Come to the rehabilitation department of the hospital to do some exercises when you have time. These drugs should also be taken every day according to the instructions.”
“Got it, thank you Dr. Wang.” Xu Qichen replied rather half-heartedly.
No wonder Su Lin was smoking so much the other day and looked so unenergetic.
Xu Qichen returned to the ward and sent many WeChat messages to Su Lin, but there was no reply.
Following his memory of the original novel, Xu Qichen took a taxi as soon as he was discharged from the hospital. After a long time, he managed to find Su Lin’s residence. It was a new condominium that was very far away. The facilities and environment were very good, but there were not many residents. If not for his detailed description of the geographical location of the condominium and even the specific floor Su Lin lived on in the novel, he would not have known where to look at all.
It was already dark by the time Xu Qichen took the elevator to the top floor, but he did not know which apartment Su Lin lived in, so he had to ring the doorbell one by one. Fortunately, there were not many people living on the top floor, and he only knocked on the wrong door twice. At the last house, Xu Qichen rang the doorbell several times, but no one opened the door.
Did something happen to him? As an author, Xu Qichen could no longer stop his mind from coming up with strange scenarios.
He kept ringing the doorbell, to the point where he felt he was almost breaking it, before the door opened.
Su Lin was wearing a pair of gold glasses, and the cuffs of his shirt were rolled to his elbows, revealing his pale arms.
His complexion was very poor, and he was so pale that his lips were bloodless. When he saw Xu Qichen, he did not show any hint of surprise. He said coldly, “What are you doing here?”
Xu Qichen held a crutch in one arm. “I came to visit the sick Dr. Su.” He jumped into the apartment, with no regard to whether Su Lin wanted to let him in or not.
“How did you know I live here.” Su Lin slammed the door shut.
Xu Qichen answered guiltily, “I… I even managed to get your WeChat, so how could your address be out of my reach?”
This apartment was very large, but there was hardly any furniture. There was only a group of sofas in the huge living room. Xu Qichen walked to the sofa arm. As soon as he put down his crutch, Su Lin grabbed the back of his collar. “Who allowed you to act so audaciously?”
Xu Qichen had no crutches to support him, so he could only turn around on one foot and grinned at Su Lin, “Myself ah~”
Su Lin’s eyebrows suddenly frowned. Xu Qichen saw that there was a layer of sweat on his forehead. “Dr. Su, you…”
Su Lin’s body fell on Xu Qichen before he could say a word. Xu Qichen subconsciously caught him with both hands, but he was standing on one foot. How could he catch a man who was more than 1.8 meters tall?
Thus, they both fell onto the sofa.
Xu Qichen finished, “… don’t look too good.”
Su Lin’s consciousness had not dissipated completely. As a high-ranking vampire, he did not need a lot of blood to survive. But he had not eaten for a long time, and the energy stored in his body was almost exhausted.
Nevertheless, he did not want to take in the blood of the person in front of him. He still put weight on his arms and tried to get away from Xu Qichen.
But suddenly the face of the man who had been chasing after him with a smile changed.
Across the small distance between them, his gaze became serious and gentle, as he slowly pushed his lower lip between the teeth and bit it hard.
The red blood flowed out of his full lips, shining in the cold light.
Like strawberries, and red roses.
“I ate a lot of sweets today, so it’s sweet. Trust me.” He smiled and reached out to touch Su Lin’s trembling Adam’s apple, before putting his hands behind his neck.
The warm breath on Su Lin’s cold skin was like an invisible but addictive cigarette ring.
“Give it a try, okay?”
Suddenly uber charismatic???
Thank you for the chapter!
AHHHHHHHHH oh my goodness YEESSSSSS
♥️
Omg!!! So bold!!! Steaming!
Strawberry & Cigarettes by Troye Sivan is quite a nice song
*Strawberries
GASP wait… did the doctor ml really just like him more when he went a bit back to his og personality… the calm and quiet one… Im kicking my feet this is so cute
…..ah…reminded me of that song of troye sivan too….
…….xu qichen quite headstrong…ahhhhh its making me blushh